


perfect places

by algebraicmutiny



Series: the gays, calamari edition [3]
Category: Love Live! Sunshine!!
Genre: Childhood Friends, F/F, Fluff, Friends to Lovers, Getting Together, Idiots in Love, Implied/Referenced Drug Use, Misunderstandings, Underage Drinking, i guess? theyre 18 and im english so idk, this is really fucking gay dont @ me
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-17
Updated: 2017-09-17
Packaged: 2018-12-30 20:34:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,496
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12116727
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/algebraicmutiny/pseuds/algebraicmutiny
Summary: "It's really starting to get dark now, stars popping up and sparkling beautifully. The angle at which Kanan is seeing Mari at that moment makes it look like she has a halo, stars framing her face as if she's an angel.She is, in Kanan's opinion."I really wanna get high right now," Mari breathes, and Kanan laughs."





	perfect places

**Author's Note:**

> melodrama is a kanamari album fuck you, fuck you  
> (also they don't get high and bang, so if thats what ur here for you've come 2 the wrong fuckinf place)  
> and this is the longest one shot ive ever written, fubckin enjoy hoes

According to Matsuura Kanan, there isn't much that's needed in life; in her opinion, a woman could live just fine on a good diet, good beer, a beneficial training schedule and a semi-comfortable couch to sleep on. She does sometimes succumb to the allure of bad reality television, but this isn't often (once a week), and she sticks to her schedule otherwise.

She feels content with her simple life-- every week is the same, routine being the key to happiness, as she often says to others. Besides, she has alcohol, she has a nice view of the night sky, and she has weed for nights that get boring (Mari's the one who supplies that, and Mari's loaded. Kanan doesn't view it as essential, but it is an added bonus).

Sometimes, Kanan does get restless, just like any other eighteen year old with her whole life ahead of her and no inclination of it really going anywhere, despite the whole school idol gig. She really doesn't expect much to come of it in the future; she's in her third year now, and school idols don't stay school idols forever. Although they could go professional, it's not something Kanan feels passionate enough about to pursue in that way. So really, she's on square one when it comes to her future.

"There's always the shop," she often assures herself, but it's not the most promising of plans, and she feels like if she doesn't do anything she'll waste away the rest of her days here. She'll watch as Mari parades through life in a limousine, and as Dia sweeps past her on a scholarship, full ride all the way through university.

She feels helpless, in a way.

Tuesday evening finds her slouched on the sofa, flicking through channels in resigned boredom, her first beer of the week popped open and half empty. She's not paying attention to whatever shows up on the screen, but decides to stop on some terrible looking talk show, just so she has some sort of background noise to her thoughts.

Thinking about her distant future has never been at the forefront of her mind, more pressing issues always taking precedence: the imminent danger of some idiot not listening to the instructions and safety hazard talk that Kanan had to learn off by heart when she was nine and fucking up their equipment while underwater being the most common event. She was always forced to dive in without her suit fully on, because otherwise they'd drown. They often tried to grope her on the way back to the boat.

All of this put together made it difficult for her to look past the here and now; her future had seemed decided for her the day she'd touched water, and it wasn't until a teacher had cheerily told her, "You could definitely get into university if you worked a little harder!" that the idea of a future outside of her designated role had even occurred to her.  
It just hadn't seemed like it was her place. She isn't particularly book smart, and she doesn't have a lot of money that she could pay her way into a career with. In fact, she was probably the least likely to have an enviable future out of all of Aquors. Perhaps it is simply her destiny to remain here forever-- perhaps it was simply her lot in life.

At least it's easy to see the stars here, she muses to herself. If anything could make her feel like maybe not going anywhere is worth it. Besides, this is home, isn't it?

                                                            *          *          *

Wednesday is bright and sunny, telling the tides of summer, promising a beautiful evening. Kanan can almost see the pinks and oranges of sunset behind her eyelids when she closes them, hidden by her English textbook. She'd much rather be outside, much rather watch the waves and track the clouds, much rather sit and wait for the stars to come out and draw pictures in the sky with the only person who really matters--

Mari is waiting for her after school, and Kanan lifts a hand in greeting. Mari waves back, bag slung over her shoulder.

"I wanna take you somewhere," she starts, and Kanan eyes her warily. "Show you something."  
"Uh huh," she states blandly. "Where and what might that be?"

"Well," Mari says thoughtfully, finger on her chin. "I want it to be a surprise!" She smiles brightly. "Where'd the fun be in telling you?"

Kanan starts walking. "Right now I'm not feelin' any fun."

"Aww," Mari whines, and Kanan can almost hear her pouting. "Well what are you feeling? Excitement? Intrigue? Curiosity?" She leans in, close enough for Kanan to feel her breath on her ear. "Arousal?"

"No," She replies, beginning to walk faster. "Fear, mostly, and a certain degree of anger, but that's kind of normal when it comes to you." Before Mari can continue to whine, she breaks into a jog. "Race you!"

"Hey!" Mari shouts, slowing down before starting to pick up pace herself. Kanan can hear the steady tapping of her school shoes along the pavement. "You don't even know where you're going!"

"But where'd the fun be in that?" she yells back, and she can't help but laugh as she speeds up, wind blowing through her hair, gripping tightly onto her school bag.

She'd much rather be here, than anywhere else, much rather chase the wind and make her way through the underbrush, looking back to Mari for directions, breathless and giddy, adrenaline rushing through her veins. She doesn't want anything else.

There's a certain something special about the way the clouds form shapes above the tree tops, the way she can reach up and brush branches with her fingertips and dance over gnarled roots that have crept up onto the cement. She can hear Mari stumbling and squawking behind her, and it only makes her smile, because she loves this, loves sharing these moments, even if she doesn't always say it, even if she can't find the words.

It's moments like these that make her feel like maybe she doesn't have to go anywhere at all.

                                                            *          *          *

Eventually, Kanan ends up slowing down so that Mari can actually lead, just because she doesn't feel like getting lost today, especially as the afternoon wore on into evening.

The summer solstice had passed more than a couple of months ago, and one could tell by the way the days had begun to get shorter, an omen of autumn, sky already a gradient of pinks and oranges.

Sometimes, it makes her sad, watching the leaves on the trees brown and fall to the ground, but the sky is clear, and the stars are bright, and she can make do.

It isn't hard.

Mari stops when they reach the steps leading down to the beach, and Kanan arches an eyebrow. "The beach?" she asks, slightly sceptical. "But we come here all the time."

"No, silly!" Mari pauses, as if thinking hard about something. "Well, yes, but that's not all of it, obviously."

Kanan laughs. "Okay, then," she says, and Mari tries to grab her hand, wanting to drag her down to the shore, but she swats her away. "Hey, hey! Let me take my shoes off!"

Mari huffs, dropping her hands to her side, and starts tapping her foot impatiently.

Kanan takes her shoes and socks off, quickly shoving them into her backpack. As she steps down, she reaches for Mari's hand, and the other girl takes it, squeezing lightly.

It feels right.

Mari leads Kanan down the beach, circling her excitedly while clutching both of her hands, talking loudly and quickly, hair fluttering around her face, and Kanan thinks she's beautiful.

"Look, we're nearly there!" Mari lets go of her hands, and Kanan tries not to look too disappointed at the loss. She squints to where Mari is pointing.

"Rocks," she deadpans, and Mari huffs indignantly.

"Ugh, you are impossible!" she whines, stamping her foot. "Give it a chance!"

Kanan shrugs. They keep walking, but Mari doesn't take her hand again.

She doesn't mind.

(She's lying.)

She finds herself stepping in Mari's footprints, her larger feet covering them completely and leaving a larger indent in their wake. By tomorrow, they'll be gone.

That's the ocean for you, she thinks to herself. Sometimes she thinks about how easily the tide could sweep her away, and while she knows it should frighten her, it almost doesn't. It's comforting, in a way, that the ocean will always be there for her, always ready to take her away. She doesn't talk about it often.

Mari is a ways ahead by now, and she's waiting patiently, eyeing Kanan curiously. Kanan just smiles. I'm here, she thinks, although she knows there's no way that Mari would be able to hear it.

"Hey," she says, once she's caught up and they're walking in step with each other again. "Remember when we were kids, and we thought we were psychic?"

Mari laughs. "Yeah," she says, smiling. "I remember. I still think about it a lot."

Kanan watches her face as she talks, and hums. "Me, too."

They don't talk much after that, and Kanan lets Mari lead in silence.

It's nice.

It's definitely nice, the way the slowly setting sun shines in Mari's hair, golden and orange melting together beautifully.

Mari catches her staring.

"What are you looking at?" she asks, smiling crookedly. Kanan blinks slowly, feeling her face heat up.

"You."

Mari seems to light up at this, lips spreading into a grin. "Wow, Kanan," she chirps, bouncing slightly. "I had no idea you thought I was that good looking!"  
"You are," she blurts out. Mari turns red and puffs out her cheeks.

"You can't just say stuff like that out of the blue, y'know!" she says, voice slightly shrill. Kanan opens her mouth to make a fool out of herself again, but Mari just huffs and flicks her hair to the side. "It's whatever, we're here now."

Kanan looks ahead. A wall of piled up rocks towers above them, sloping easily towards the sky and up onto a levelled hill at the very top. As far as she can remember, there used to be a large tree up there, along with a bench and a small stream that trickled down over the rocks and into the ocean. She frowns. "The rocks? But we came here all the time when we were kids, right?"

"We sure did," Mari affirms, smiling brightly. "But it's a little different now."

Kanan tilts her head to the side. "How so?"

"Come see!" Mari kicks her shoes off onto the sand and peels off her socks, and Kanan is glad that she took her own shoes off beforehand as the other girl picks them up off of the ground and hands them to her. "Put these in your bag for me?"

Kanan takes the lead as they start making their way up the rocky hill-face, scrambling for secure footholds, Mari complaining about how the route wasn't the same as when they were children. Kanan snorts at that, telling her "of course it's different, dumbass, how many years has it been?", which earns her a gasp of mock outrage before she falls silent again, concentrating on not slipping and falling to an untimely death. Kanan approves of this, and they continue onwards for another few minutes before Mari speaks up again.

"We should be nearly there now," she says. Kanan nods.

"Okay."

The sun is slowly setting by the time the two of them reach the top, and Kanan feels her throat constrict as she looks around her, the scenery familiar and yet so strange at the same time.

Instead of one tree like she remembers, there is now a grove of them, all circling a small clearing with a flat slab of mossy stone in the middle. The stream had grown over the years, now a young river that flows silently across the greenery, and slips over the side of the rocks, making its way down to the sea. The bench is gone, but the grass is now dotted with patches of flowers, yellow and white, moving with the breeze. A few early stars flicker in the darkening sky, framing the scene like a painting, soft colours and silent beauty reminding her of a fairy-tale.

"Beautiful, isn't it?" Kanan lets go of a breath she hadn't known she was holding as Mari walks up beside her. "I came up here as soon as I got back, wanting to see if it was still here."

Kanan turns to her, confused. "But why?" When Mari looks at her with a puzzled and slightly hurt face, she realises how it must have sounded, and rushes to cover up her mistake. "I mean, don't get me wrong, it's gorgeous. But we haven't been here since we were tiny-- why did you think to come here?"

"Hmm..." Mari pressed a finger to her chin, seeming to be pondering the question. "Well," she begins. "Let's just say that it was very important to me."

Kanan hums. "I see." Mari's face screws up into something incredibly ugly, and Kanan barks a laugh. "Ew, I take back what I said about you being pretty. What's that face for?"

"Hey!" Mari jabs at her sides, and Kanan yelps. "Don't be so fucking rude! Besides, I was expecting you to ask why!"

"Oh." Kanan holds onto her waist gingerly, eyeing Mari's hands, which were still poised to attack. "Then, why?"

Mari drops her hands and smiles smugly. "Oh, you'll find out."

Kanan scowls, gripping her hands tighter around her sides. "Why the fuck did you want me to ask you then? The hell's your problem?"

She just laughs. "Dramatic flair, mystery, all that shazinga."

"The-- _shazinga_? The fuck does _that_  mean?"

Mari chooses to ignore this and instead starts to make her way over to the clearing. "Hurry up, Kanan! Time waits for no man!"

"Good thing I'm a woman, then," she grumbles, before kicking at the grass and shuffling towards the trees. "I have all the time in the world."

When she gets there, Mari is already seated on the rock, smiling and patting the space next to her. Kanan flops down next to her, and looks up at the sky.

"Oh, hey," she mutters, mostly to herself. "You can already see the big dipper."

Mari giggles beside her. "Fuckin' nerd."

Kanan can feel her cheeks heat up and the overwhelming urge to push Mari off the rock, but it's really nice, feeling the presence of another person beside her, especially as it starts getting cooler, and, oh, maybe they could cuddle for warmth, that would be _really_ nice.

"Hey, earth to Kanan?" Mari snaps her fingers in front of her face. "I would've thought you'd have pushed me off the rock by now."

Kanan scowls. "I was gonna, but I wanna cuddle." She turns her face away from Mari in embarrassment. "It's getting kinda cold."

She can almost hear Mari's massive grin, so she turns back to glare at her, but instead she's only looking. Her gaze seems fond, and it almost makes Kanan feel shy.

Almost.

She spreads her arms out in invitation. "So are we gonna cuddle, or what?"

Mari huffs a laugh, shuffling into her. "You're a massive dork."

Kanan wraps her in her arms, tucking her head under her chin, feeling Mari's heart beat against her chest. "Yeah, but I'm your massive dork."

Mari's head shoots up at this, knocking Kanan's head back, causing her to fall backwards, squawking and cursing in pain. "Shit! Fuck! Kanan, babe, I'm so sorry!"

Kanan sits up and eyes her incredulously, rubbing her sore chin. "Babe?"

She splutters at this. "Uh, I mean, um, well." She blushes furiously. "I mean, you called yourself my massive dork! That's not any better!"

Kanan drops her hands down into her lap and stares down at them. "Well, I could be?" She pauses a moment before continuing. "I mean, yours, not necessarily a massive dork."

Mari's eyes go wide. "I-- you--"

Kanan is fairly sure that she is as red as a tomato by now. "Sorry. Have I been reading your signals wrong? It's possible, I'm not very smart, but you do like to touch my boobs a lot and I figured that might mean something, but then again it could be some weird American thing you've picked up--"

Mari screeches at this. "Stop, stop, stop! Kanan, you massive idiot!"

Kanan blinks. "So it was?"  
  
"Argh, no!" Mari screeches. "This isn't going like I planned it at all!"

Kanan isn't sure she understands, so she steels herself. She hopes it's a quick, clean rejection, not some awkward, convoluted reason as to why she can't be with her. Those always tend to seem more painful, at least in the bad television she watches sometimes.

"Kanan," Mari begins, standing up, and the other girl tenses. /Here it comes/. "Kanan, I am absolutely, horrifically in love with you."

Kanan's jaw drops.

Well this isn't going as expected.

"But tonight wasn't meant to /go/ like this!" she whines, stamping her foot. "I was supposed to be really cool, and tell you about how this was the place that I realised I was a massive lesbian for you when we were ten, and then I was gonna sweep you off of your feet and make sweet, passionate love to you underneath the stars, because I thought you'd probably be into that, and it was gonna be super romantic and stuff!" She stops to take a breath here, and Kanan notes faintly that she had, in fact, started going purple. "But then you had to screw it up by asking to cuddle and saying the most stupidly adorable things I have ever heard in my entire life, and then you act absolutely clueless as to what's going on and oh my god! I'm really fucking gay!"

Kanan nods, dazed. "That sure does sound really fucking gay."

"And I didn't sound cool at all," she wails. "I called you 'babe' by accident and then made an idiot out of myself by bringing up the fact that you fucking called yourself my massive dork, and then you did the stupid sad eyes thing and I felt super fucking guilty even though I've been trying to confess to you this entire fucking _time_ \--"

Kanan can't stop herself from laughing, then, loud and hysterical. "You-- you--"

"And then," Mari shrieks. "And _then_ , you have the nerve and the audacity to call me out on my fascination with your goddamn boobs, which are _really_ fucking nice, by the way, and now you're _laughing_  at me!"

Kanan is now shaking with laughter. "Oh my god! Oh my god!"

"Yes, oh my god!" she yells, throwing her hands up to the sky. " _And_ you said I was ugly! Like how fucking _rude_ can you get!"

Kanan stops laughing at that. "I'm sorry," she says, voice low and serious. "I didn't mean that."

Mari drops her arms. "Huh?"

"It was just a joke," Kanan explains softly. "You really are the most beautiful person I've ever met."

Mari's breath hitches in her throat, and Kanan is almost afraid that she's going to start screaming again. "Kanan-- That's--"  
"Gay, I know," she interrupts. "But I really want to be with you. Seriously."

It's really starting to get dark now, stars popping up and sparkling beautifully. The angle at which Kanan is seeing Mari at that moment makes it look like she has a halo, stars framing her face as if she's an angel.

She is, in Kanan's opinion.

"I really wanna get high right now," Mari breathes, and Kanan laughs.

"God, same," she says, but she doesn't have anything on her, so she just pulls Mari down to her level and kisses her.

This was an incredibly good idea on Mari's part. When Mari giggles and grabs at her face, pulling her closer than she would have thought possible, Kanan sighs slides her hands down Mari's sides, because this is _perfect_.

She really likes the feeling of Mari's waist underneath her hands, and she likes the way Mari stares at her dreamily while she points out the constellations, and she likes the way Mari checks her watch and curses, pulling at her hand and dragging her back down the rocks, balancing precariously on each foothold and whooping triumphantly when they reach the bottom, grabbing her face and kissing her soundly. Kanan really likes Mari. Kanan is really in love with Mari.

It feels like she's finally found her paradise, with the way Mari kisses her softly at the door, one hand gripping the frame and the other on Kanan's waist.

"See you tomorrow?" she asks breathlessly. Kanan nods wordlessly, and watches for her as she walks away, until she can't see her anymore.

Kanan falls asleep with the taste of Mari's lips on her own, dreaming of stars and angels, and perfect places.

**Author's Note:**

> i was gonna get a friend to beta read this but u know what i wanted 2 post it before i started regretting my life choices  
> i literally started writing this in august save me  
> also i know i write my kanamari the same way i write iwaoi, dont fucking. tell me i know  
> tumblr: http://glossiests.tumblr.com  
> art tumblr: http://glossiests-art.tumblr.com  
> i post gay shit


End file.
